Editing Elizabeth Gaskell

{{Short description|English novelist, biographer, and short story writer (1810–1865)}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Elizabeth Gaskell
| image       = Elizabeth Gaskell 1832.jpg
| caption     = 1832 [[portrait miniature|miniature]]
| pseudonym   =
| birth_name  = Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1810|09|29|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Chelsea, London]], England
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1865|11|12|1810|09|29|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Holybourne]], [[Hampshire]], England
| occupation  = Novelist
| period      = 1848–1865
| genre       =
| subject     =
| movement    =
| spouse      = {{marriage|[[William Gaskell]]|1832}}
| children    = 5 
| relatives   =
| influences  =
| influenced  =
| signature   = Elizabeth Gaskell Signature.jpg
| website     =
}}

'''Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell''' (''née'' '''Stevenson'''; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as '''Mrs Gaskell''', was an English [[novelist]], [[biographer]], [[poet]], and [[short story]] writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of [[Victorian era|Victorian]] society, including the lives of the very poor. Her first novel, ''[[Mary Barton]]'', was published in 1848. Her only biography ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'', published in 1857, was controversial and significant in establishing the Brontë family's lasting fame. Among Gaskell's best known novels are ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]'' (1851–1853), ''[[North and South (Gaskell novel)|North and South]]'' (1854–1855), and ''[[Wives and Daughters]]'' (1864–1866), all of which have been adapted for television by the BBC.

==Early life==
She was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on 29 September 1810 in Lindsey Row, [[Chelsea, London]], now 93 [[Cheyne Walk]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gaskellsociety.co.uk/elizabeth-gaskell/|title=Elizabeth Gaskell Biography - The Gaskell Society|website=Gaskellsociety.co.uk|access-date=9 December 2017}}</ref> The doctor who delivered her was [[Anthony Todd Thomson]], whose sister Catherine later became Gaskell's stepmother.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |last=Uglow |first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Uglow |title=Gaskell [née Stevenson], Elizabeth Cleghorn |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/10434}}</ref> She was the youngest of eight children; only she and her brother John survived infancy. Her father, [[William Stevenson (Scottish writer)|William Stevenson]], a [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] from [[Berwick-upon-Tweed]], was minister at [[Failsworth]], Lancashire, but resigned his orders on conscientious grounds. He moved to London in 1806 on the understanding that he would be appointed [[private secretary]] to [[James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale]], who was to become [[Governor General of India]].  That position did not materialise, however, and Stevenson was nominated Keeper of the Treasury Records.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

His wife, Elizabeth Holland, came from a family established in Lancashire and Cheshire that was connected with other prominent Unitarian families, including the [[Wedgwood]]s, the [[Martineau family|Martineaus]], the [[William Turner (Unitarian minister)|Turners]] and the [[Darwin–Wedgwood family|Darwins]]. When she died 13 months after giving birth to Gaskell,<ref name="Chronology">{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell; Chronology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TjZjIpq6TwoC|last=Weyant |first=Nancy S. |year=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-60926-5 |pages=xi–xx }}<!--|access-date=29 February 2012--></ref> her husband sent the baby to live with Elizabeth's sister, Hannah Lumb, in [[Knutsford]], Cheshire.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mrs. Gaskell: Novelist and Biographer |url=https://archive.org/details/mrsgaskellnoveli0000poll |url-access=registration |last=Pollard |first=Arthur |year=1965 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=0-674-57750-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/mrsgaskellnoveli0000poll/page/12 12] }}</ref> 

Her father remarried to Catherine Thomson, in 1814. They had a son, William, in 1815, and a daughter, Catherine, in 1816. Although Elizabeth spent several years without seeing her father, to whom she was devoted, her older brother John often visited her in Knutsford. John was destined for the [[Royal Navy]] from an early age, like his grandfathers and uncles, but he did not obtain preferment into the Service and had to join the [[British Merchant Navy|Merchant Navy]] with the [[English East India Company|East India Company]]'s fleet.<ref>{{cite book |title=Elizabeth Gaskell |last=Gérin |first=Winifred |year=1976 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-281296-3 |pages=10–17 }}</ref> John went missing in 1827 during an expedition to India.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Gaskell [née Stevenson], Elizabeth Cleghorn (1810–1865), novelist and short-story writer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-10434 |access-date=2024-01-22 |date=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/10434}}</ref>

==Character and influences==
Much of Gaskell's childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with her aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, the town she immortalized as ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]''. They lived in a large red-brick house called The Heath (now Heathwaite).<ref>{{cite book |author=Jenny Uglow |author-link=Jenny Uglow |title=Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=1993 |isbn=0-571-20359-0 |pages=13–14}}</ref><ref>Heathside (now Gaskell Avenue), which faces the large open area of Knutsford Heath.</ref> She grew to be a beautiful young woman, well-groomed, tidily dressed, kind, gentle, and considerate of others.  Her temperament was calm and collected, joyous and innocent, she revelled in the simplicity of rural life.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gaskell |first=Elizabeth Cleghorn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B-Y9jgEACAAJ |title=The Doom of the Griffiths (annotated) |date=1858 |publisher=Interactive Media |isbn=978-1-911495-12-3 |pages=introduction |oclc=974343914}}</ref> 

From 1821 to 1826 she attended a school in [[Warwickshire]] run by the [[Maria Byerley|Misses Byerley]], first at [[Barford, Warwickshire|Barford]] and from 1824 at Avonbank outside [[Stratford-on-Avon (district)|Stratford-on-Avon]],<ref name="Chronology"/> where she received the traditional education in arts, the classics, decorum and propriety given to young ladies from relatively wealthy families at the time. Her aunts gave her the classics to read, and she was encouraged by her father in her studies and writing. Her brother John sent her modern books, and descriptions of his life at sea and his experiences abroad.<ref name="Pocket">{{cite book |title=Introduction to The Manchester Marriage |last=Michell |first=Sheila |year=1985 |publisher=Alan Sutton |location=UK |isbn=0-86299-247-8 |pages=iv–viii }}<!--|access-date=29 February 2012--></ref>

After leaving school at the age of 16, she travelled to London to spend time with her Holland cousins.<ref name="Pocket"/> She also spent some time in [[Newcastle upon Tyne]] (with the [[William Turner (Unitarian minister)|Rev William Turner]]'s family) and from there made the journey to [[Edinburgh]].  Her stepmother's brother was the [[portrait miniature|miniature artist]] [[William John Thomson]], who in 1832 painted her portrait (see top right).  A bust was sculpted by David Dunbar at the same time.<ref name="Pocket"/>

==Married life and writing career==
[[File:Elizabeth Gaskell.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Gaskell: 1851 portrait by [[George Richmond (painter)|George Richmond]]]]
On 30 August 1832 Mrs. Gaskell married Unitarian minister [[William Gaskell]], in Knutsford. They spent their honeymoon in [[North Wales]], staying with her uncle, Samuel Holland, at Plas-yn-Penrhyn near [[Porthmadog]].<ref>"The prominent house Plas yn Penrhyn …. at the top of Penrhyn itself was the home of Samuel Holland ..." Gwynedd Archaeological Trust http://www.heneb.co.uk/hlc/ffestiniog/ffest27.html</ref> The Gaskells then settled in [[Manchester]], where William was the minister at [[Cross Street Unitarian Chapel]] and longest-serving chair of the [[The Portico Library|Portico Library]].  Manchester's industrial surroundings and books borrowed from the library influenced Elizabeth's writing in the [[industrial novel|industrial genre]]. Their first daughter was stillborn in 1833. Their other children were Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily, known as Meta (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), and Julia Bradford (1846). Marianne and Meta boarded at the private school conducted by [[Martineau family|Rachel Martineau]], sister of [[Harriet Martineau|Harriet]], a close friend of Elizabeth.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6iNXAAAAYAAJ&q=Manchester+ladies+educational+association+meta+gaskell|title=The Gaskell Society Journal, Volume 22|publisher=The Gaskell Society |year= 2008 |   page =57|access-date=25 April 2017|quote=Meta (Margaret Emily), the second daughter, was sent at about the same age as Marianne to Miss Rachel Martineau, ...}}</ref>  Florence married [[Charles Crompton]], a barrister and Liberal politician, in 1863.<ref name="Chronology"/>

In March 1835 Mrs. Gaskell began a diary documenting the development of her daughter Marianne: she explored parenthood, the values she placed on her role as a mother; her faith, and, later, relations between Marianne and her sister, Meta.  In 1836 she co-authored with her husband a cycle of poems, ''Sketches among the Poor'', which was published in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'' in January 1837. In 1840 [[William Howitt]] published ''Visits to Remarkable Places'' containing a contribution entitled ''Clopton Hall'' by "A Lady", the first work written and published solely by her.  In April 1840 Howitt published ''The Rural Life of England'', which included a second work titled ''Notes on Cheshire Customs''.<ref name="Chronology"/>

In July 1841, the Gaskells travelled to Belgium and Germany.  [[German literature]] came to have a strong influence on her short stories, the first of which she published in 1847 as ''Libbie Marsh's Three Eras'', in ''Howitt's Journal'', under the pseudonym "Cotton Mather Mills".  But other influences including [[Adam Smith]]'s ''Social Politics'' enabled a much wider understanding of the cultural milieu in which her works were set.  Her second story printed under the pseudonym was ''The Sexton's Hero''. And she made her last use of it in 1848, with the publication of her story ''Christmas Storms and Sunshine''.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

For some 20 years beginning in 1843, the Gaskells took holidays at [[Silverdale, Lancashire|Silverdale]] on [[Morecambe Bay]], and in particular stayed at [[Lindeth Tower]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Silverdale Tower - Elizabeth Gaskell's Lancashire inspiration |url=https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/people/silverdale-tower-elizabeth-gaskell-s-lancashire-inspiration-6930782 |access-date=27 September 2022 |work=Great British Life |date=13 June 2011 |language=en-UK}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=An Elizabeth Gaskell staycation |url=https://elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/an-elizabeth-gaskell-staycation/ |website=elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk |access-date=27 September 2022 |language=en |date=5 August 2020}}</ref> Daughters Meta and Julia later built a house, "The Shieling", in Silverdale.<ref>{{cite news |title=The house of a forgotten writer |url=https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/6932747.the-house-of-a-forgotten-writer/ |access-date=27 September 2022 |work=The Westmorland Gazette |date=8 February 2002 |language=en}}</ref>

A son, William, (1844–45), died in infancy, and this tragedy was the catalyst for Gaskell's first novel, ''[[Mary Barton]]''. It was ready for publication in October 1848,<ref name="Chronology"/> shortly before they made the move south.  It was an enormous success, selling thousands of copies.  Ritchie called it a "great and remarkable sensation."  It was praised by [[Thomas Carlyle]] and [[Maria Edgeworth]].  She brought the teeming [[slum]]s of manufacturing in Manchester alive to readers as yet unacquainted with crowded narrow alleyways.  Her obvious depth of feeling was evident, while her turn of phrase and description was described as the greatest since [[Jane Austen]].<ref>Ritchie, p. xviii.</ref>

In 1850, the Gaskells moved to a villa at [[84 Plymouth Grove]].<ref name="Uglow">Uglow J. ''Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories'' (Faber and Faber; 1993) ({{ISBN|0-571-20359-0}})</ref> She took her cow with her. For exercise, she would happily walk three miles to help another person in distress.  In Manchester, Elizabeth wrote her remaining literary works, while her husband held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study. The Gaskells' social circle included writers, journalists, religious dissenters, and social reformers such as William and [[Mary Howitt]] and [[Harriet Martineau]]. Poets, patrons of literature and writers such as  [[Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton|Lord Houghton]],  [[Charles Dickens]] and [[John Ruskin]] visited Plymouth Grove, as did the American writers [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] and [[Charles Eliot Norton]], while the conductor [[Charles Hallé]], who lived close by, taught piano to one of their daughters. Elizabeth's friend [[Charlotte Brontë]] stayed there three times, and on one occasion hid behind the drawing room curtains as she was too shy to meet the Gaskells' other visitors.<ref name="Independent">{{cite news|url=http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/features/article353793.ece |last=Nurden |first=Robert |title=An ending Dickens would have liked |date=26 March 2006 |location=London |work=The Independent |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930165339/http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/features/article353793.ece |archive-date=30 September 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Miss Meta Gaskell|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/1st-november-1913/24/miss-meta-gaskell|work=The Spectator |date=1 November 1913|access-date=25 April 2017|quote=LORD HOUGHTON once said that the conversation and society to be met within the house of the Gaskells at Manchester were the one thing which made life in that city tolerable for people of literary tastes. Miss Meta Gaskell, (daughter of Elizabeth Gaskell) who died last Sunday...}}</ref>

[[File:Gaskell House Plymouth Grove front.JPG|thumb|left|[[84 Plymouth Grove|Gaskell House]], Plymouth Grove, Manchester]]
In early 1850 Gaskell wrote to [[Charles Dickens]] asking for advice about assisting a girl named Pasley whom she had visited in prison. Pasley provided her with a model for the title character of ''[[Ruth (novel)|Ruth]]'' in 1853. ''Lizzie Leigh'' was published in March and April 1850, in the first numbers of Dickens's journal ''[[Household Words]]'', in which many of her works were to be published, including ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]'' and ''[[North and South (Gaskell novel)|North and South]]'', her novella ''[[My Lady Ludlow]]'', and short stories.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

In June 1855, [[Patrick Brontë]] asked Gaskell to write a biography of his daughter Charlotte, and consequently she published ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë| The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'' in 1857, a significant development in Gaskell's literary career.<ref name="Chronology"/> Her choice to privilege Brontë's private life over her public literary career was unconventional and proved controversial.<ref>Stone, Donald D. ''The Romantic Impulse in Victorian Fiction''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980, p. 141.</ref> In 1859 Gaskell travelled to [[Whitby]] to gather material for ''[[Sylvia's Lovers]]'', which was published in 1863. Her novella ''Cousin Phyllis'' was serialized in ''[[The Cornhill Magazine]]'' from November 1863 to February 1864. The serialization of her last novel, ''Wives and Daughters'', began in August 1864 in ''The Cornhill''.<ref name="Chronology"/> She died of a heart attack in 1865, while visiting a house she had purchased in [[Holybourne]], Hampshire. ''Wives and Daughters'' was published in book form in early 1866, first in the United States and then, ten days later, in Britain.<ref name="Chronology"/>

Her grave is near the [[Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford]].{{cn|date=September 2022}}

==Reputation and re-evaluation==
Mrs. Gaskell's reputation from her death to the 1950s was epitomised by [[Lord David Cecil]]'s assessment in ''Early Victorian Novelists'' (1934) that she was "all woman" and "makes a creditable effort to overcome her natural deficiencies but all in vain" (quoted in Stoneman, 1987, from Cecil, p.&nbsp;235). A scathing unsigned  [[review]] of ''North and South'' in ''[[The Leader (English newspaper)|The Leader]]'' accused Gaskell of making errors about Lancashire which a resident of Manchester would not make and said that a woman (or clergymen and women) could not "understand industrial problems", would "know too little about the [[cotton industry]]" and had no "right to add to the confusion by writing about it".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Chapman|editor-first=Alison|title=Elizabeth Gaskell: Mary Barton North and South|year=1999|publisher=Icon Books|location=Duxford|isbn=9781840460377}}</ref>

Mrs. Gaskell's novels, with the exception of ''Cranford'', gradually slipped into obscurity during the late 19th century; before 1950, she was dismissed as a minor author with good judgment and "feminine" sensibilities. Archie Stanton Whitfield said her work was "like a nosegay of violets, honeysuckle, lavender, mignonette and sweet briar" in 1929.<ref>{{cite book|last=Whitfield|first=Archie Stanton|title=Mrs. Gaskell, Her Life and Works|year=1929|publisher=G. Routledge & sons|page=258}}</ref> Cecil (1934) said that she lacked the "masculinity" necessary to properly deal with social problems (Chapman, 1999, pp.&nbsp;39–40).

However, the critical tide began to turn in Mrs. Gaskell's favour when, in the 1950s and 1960s, socialist critics like [[Kathleen Mary Tillotson|Kathleen Tillotson]], [[Arnold Kettle]] and [[Raymond Williams]] re-evaluated the description of social and industrial problems in her novels (see Moore, 1999<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.drury.edu/multinl/story.cfm?ID=2466&NLID=166 |title=Drury University: Victorian Age Literature, Marxism, and Labor Movement |access-date=2012-06-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601222956/http://www.drury.edu/multinl/story.cfm?ID=2466&NLID=166 |archive-date=1 June 2010 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> for an elaboration), and—realising that her vision went against the prevailing views of the time—saw it as preparing the way for vocal [[feminist movement]]s.<ref>Stoneman, Patsy (1987). Elizabeth Gaskell. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|9780253301031}}, p. 3.</ref>
In the early 21st century, with Mrs. Gaskell's work "enlisted in contemporary negotiations of nationhood as well as gender and class identities",<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Matus|editor-first=Jill L.|title=The Cambridge companion to Elizabeth Gaskell|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK|isbn=9780521846769|edition=repr.}}, p. 9.</ref> ''North and South'' – one of the first industrial novels describing the conflict between employers and workers – was recognized as depicting complex social conflicts and offering more satisfactory solutions through Margaret Hale: spokesperson for the author and Gaskell's most mature creation.<ref>Pearl L. Brown. "From Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton To Her North And South: Progress Or Decline For Women?" ''Victorian Literature and Culture'', 28, pp. 345–358.</ref>

In her introduction to ''The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell'' (2007), a collection of essays representing the current Gaskell scholarship, Jill L. Matus stresses the author's growing stature in Victorian literary studies and how her innovative, versatile storytelling addressed the rapid changes during her lifetime.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

==Literary style and themes==
[[File:Miss Matty and Peter.jpg|thumb|right|A scene from [[Cranford (novel)|''Cranford'']], illustrated by [[Sybil Tawse]].]]
Gaskell's first novel, ''[[Mary Barton]]'', was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]'' (1851–1853), ''[[North and South (Gaskell novel)|North and South]]'' (1854–1855), and ''[[Wives and Daughters]]'' (1864–1866). She became popular for her writing, especially her [[ghost stories]], aided by [[Charles Dickens]], who published her work in his magazine ''[[Household Words]]''. Her ghost stories are in the "[[Gothic fiction|Gothic]]" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works were highly influenced by the social analysis of [[Thomas Carlyle]] and focused on factory work in the Midlands.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grasso |first=Anthony R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Nvdx-4-CzoC |title=The Carlyle Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8386-3792-0 |editor-last=Cumming |editor-first=Mark |location=Madison and Teaneck, NJ |pages=186–188 |chapter=Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn |url-access=limited}}</ref> She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters.<ref>Excluding reference to Gaskell's Ghost Stories, Abrams, M.&nbsp;H., et al. (eds), "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810–1865". ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century'', 7th ed., Vol.&nbsp;B. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. {{ISBN|0-393-97304-2}}. DDC 820.8—dc21. LC PR1109.N6.</ref> Gaskell was influenced by the writings of [[Jane Austen]], especially in ''North and South,'' which borrows liberally from the courtship plot of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sussman |first1=Matthew |title="Austen, Gaskell, and the Politics of Domestic Fiction" |journal=Modern Language Quarterly |date=March 2022 |volume=83 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1215/00267929-9475004 |s2cid=247141954 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/modern-language-quarterly/article/83/1/1/294319/Austen-Gaskell-and-the-Politics-of-Domestic |access-date=5 June 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> She was an established novelist when Patrick Brontë invited her to write a biography of his daughter, though she worried, as a writer of fiction, that it would be "a difficult thing" to "be accurate and keep to the facts."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Easson |first1=Angus |title="Introduction" to The Life of Charlotte Brontë |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-955476-8 |page=xi}}</ref> Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction readers.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Children in Early Victorian England: Infant Feeding in Literature and Society, 1837-1857|first=V.|last=PHILLIPS|date=1 August 1978|journal=Journal of Tropical Pediatrics|volume=24|issue=4|pages=158–166|doi=10.1093/tropej/24.4.158|pmid=364073}}</ref>

===Themes===
[[Unitarianism]] urges comprehension and tolerance toward all religions and even though Gaskell tried to keep her own beliefs hidden, she felt strongly about these values which permeated her works; in ''North and South'', "Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the [[Dissenter]], Higgins the [[Infidel]], knelt down together. It did them no harm."<ref>{{cite book |title=North and South |last=Gaskell |first=Elizabeth |year=1854–55 |publisher=Penguin Popular Classics |isbn=978-0-14-062019-1|page=277}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Elizabeth Gaskell |last=Easson |first=Angus |year=1979 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |isbn=0-7100-0099-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/elizabethgaskell0000eass/page/12 12–17] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/elizabethgaskell0000eass/page/12 }}</ref>

===Dialect usage===
Gaskell's style is notable for putting local dialect words into the mouths of middle-class characters and the narrator. In ''North and South'' Margaret Hale suggests ''[[wikt:redd|redding]] up'' (tidying) the Bouchers' house and even offers jokingly to teach her mother words such as ''[[wikt:knobstick|knobstick]]'' (strike-breaker).<ref name="Ingham">Ingham, P. (1995). Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of ''North and South''.</ref> In 1854 she defended her use of dialect to express otherwise inexpressible concepts in a letter to [[Walter Savage Landor]]:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;you will remember the country people's use of the word "[[wikt:unked|unked]]". I can't find any other word to express the exact feeling of strange unusual desolate discomfort, and I sometimes "[[wikt:potter#Etymology_2|potter]]" and "[[wikt:mither|mither]]" people by using it.<ref name="Ingham" /><ref name="Letters">Chapple JAV, Pollard A, eds. ''The Letters of Mrs Gaskell''. Mandolin (Manchester University Press), 1997</ref>}}

She also used the dialect word "[[nesh]]" (a person who feels the cold easily or often feels cold is said to be 'nesh'), which goes back to [[Old English]], in ''Mary Barton'':

{{blockquote|Sit you down here: the grass is well nigh dry by this time; and you're neither of you nesh folk about taking cold.<ref>{{cite book | last = Gaskell | first = E. | year = 1848 | title = Mary Barton | url = https://archive.org/details/marybartonbyecg01bartgoog | chapter = 1}}.</ref>}}

also in ''North and South'':

{{blockquote|And I did na like to be reckoned nesh and soft,<ref>{{cite book |title=North and South |last=Gaskell |first=Elizabeth |year=1854–55 |publisher=Penguin Popular Classics |isbn=978-0-14-062019-1}}</ref>}}

and later in "The Manchester Marriage" (1858):

{{blockquote|Now, I'm not above being nesh for other folks myself. I can stand a good blow, and never change colour; but, set me in the operating-room in the Infirmary, and I turn as sick as a girl.
}}

and:

{{blockquote|
At Mrs Wilson's death Norah came back to them, as a nurse to the newly-born little Edwin; into which post she was not installed without a pretty strong oration on the part of the proud and happy father; who declared that if he found out that Norah ever tried to screen the boy by falsehood, or to make him nesh either in body or mind, she should go that very day.<ref>{{cite book | url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15252/15252.txt | series = Victorian Short Stories | title = Stories of Successful Marriages | publisher=The Project Gutenberg}}.</ref>
}}

== Publications ==
[[File:Elizabeth Gaskell 7.jpg|thumb|right|Elizabeth Gaskell, c.&nbsp;1860]]
Source:<ref name=Weyant_chron>{{citation |chapter=Chronology |author=Nancy S. Weyant |title=The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell |editor=Jill L. Matus |year=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-60926-5 }}</ref>

=== Novels ===
* ''[[Mary Barton]]'' (1848)
* ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]'' (1851–1853)
* ''[[Ruth (novel)|Ruth]]'' (1853)
* ''[[North and South (Gaskell novel)|North and South]]'' (1854–1855)
* ''[[My Lady Ludlow]]'' (1858–1859)
* ''[[A Dark Night's Work]]'' (1863)
* ''[[Sylvia's Lovers]]'' (1863)
* ''[[Wives and Daughters|Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story]]'' (1864–1866)

=== Novellas and collections ===
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* ''The Moorland Cottage'' (1850)
* ''[[Mr. Harrison's Confessions]]'' (1851)
* ''Lizzie Leigh'' (1855)
* ''[[Round the Sofa]]'' (1859)
* ''[[Lois the Witch]]'' (1859; 1861)
* ''[[Cousin Phillis]]'' (1863–1864)
* ''The Grey Woman and Other Tales'' (1865)
{{div col end}}

===Short stories===
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* "Libbie Marsh's Three Eras" (1847)
* "The Sexton's Hero" (1847)
* "Christmas Storms and Sunshine" (1848)
* "Hand and Heart" (1849)
* "Martha Preston" (1850)
* "The Well of Pen-Morfa" (1850)
* "The Heart of John Middleton" (1850)
* "Disappearances" (1851)
* "Bessy's Troubles at Home" (1852)
* "The Old Nurse's Story" (1852)
* "Cumberland Sheep-Shearers" (1853)
* "Morton Hall" (1853)
* "Traits and Stories of the Huguenots" (1853)
* "My French Master" (1853)
* "The Squire's Story" (1853)
* "Company Manners" (1854)
* "Half a Life-time Ago" (1855)
* "[[The Poor Clare (Gaskell story)|The Poor Clare]]" (1856)
* "The Doom of the Griffiths" (1858)
* "An Incident at Niagara Falls" (1858)
* "The Sin of a Father" (1858), later republished as "Right at Last"
* "The Manchester Marriage" (1858)<ref>A chapter of ''[[A House to Let]]'', co-written with [[Charles Dickens]], [[Wilkie Collins]], and [[Adelaide Anne Procter]].</ref>
* "[[The Haunted House (story)|The Haunted House]]" (1859)<ref>Co-written with [[Charles Dickens]], [[Wilkie Collins]], [[Adelaide Proctor]], [[George Sala]] and [[Hesba Stretton]].</ref>
* "The Ghost in the Garden Room" (1859), later "The Crooked Branch"
* "The Half Brothers" (1859)
* "Curious If True" (1860)
* "The Grey Woman" (1861)
* "Six weeks at Heppenheim" (1862)<ref name=Uglow_pub_list>{{citation |chapter=First Publication of Elizabeth Gaskell's Works |pages=617–19 |title=Elizabeth Gaskell |author=Jenny Uglow |author-link=Jenny Uglow |year=1999 |edition=2nd |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn=0-571-20359-0}}</ref>
* "The Cage at Cranford" (1863)<ref name=Uglow_pub_list />
* "How the First Floor Went to Crowley Castle" (1863), republished as "Crowley Castle"<ref name=Uglow_pub_list />
* "A Parson's Holiday" (1865)
{{div col end}}

===Non-fiction===
* "Notes on Cheshire Customs" (1840)
* ''An Accursed Race'' (1855)
* ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'' (1857)
* "French Life" (1864)
* "A Column of Gossip from Paris" (1865)

===Poetry===
* ''Sketches Among the Poor'' (with William Gaskell; 1837)
* ''Temperance Rhymes'' (1839)

==Legacy==
The house on Plymouth Grove remained in the Gaskell family until 1913, after which it stood empty and fell into disrepair. The [[University of Manchester]] acquired it in 1969 and in 2004 it was acquired by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, which then raised money to restore it. Exterior renovations were completed in 2011; it is now open to the public as a [[historic house museum]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/|title=Elizabeth Gaskell's House|website=www.elizabethgaskellhouse.org|access-date=1 December 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13357245 |work=BBC News | title=Elizabeth Gaskell's house damaged after lead theft | date=11 May 2011}}</ref> In 2010, a memorial to Gaskell was unveiled in [[Poets' Corner]] in [[Westminster Abbey]]. The panel was dedicated by her great-great-great-granddaughter Sarah Prince and a wreath was laid.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/elizabeth-gaskell|title=Elizabeth Gaskell|website=www.westminster-abbey.org|access-date=9 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819202026/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/elizabeth-gaskell|archive-date=19 August 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> [[Manchester City Council]] have created an award in Gaskell's name, given to recognize women's involvement in charitable work and improvement of lives.<ref>{{cite news |title=Veteran CND campaigner wins Elizabeth Gaskell award at age of 92 |date=24 September 2010 |work=Manchester Evening News |url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/veteran-cnd-campaigner-wins-elizabeth-899528 |access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> A bibliomemoir ''Mrs. Gaskell and me: Two Women, Two Love Stories, Two centuries Apart'', by Nell Stevens was published in 2018.<ref>[https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/mrs-gaskell-and-me-review-a-funny-heartfelt-tribute-to-a-literary-giant-1.3641091 "A Funny Heartfelt Tribute to a Literary Giant"], ''Irish Times'', 29 September 2018.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Stevens |first1=Nell |title=Mrs Gaskell and me : two women, two love stories, two centuries apart |date=2018 |publisher=Picador |location=London |isbn=978-1509868186 |access-date=}}</ref>

The playwright [[Margaret Macnamara (playwright)|Margaret Macnamara]] wrote a play based on the novel which was performed in 1949.<ref>{{Cite news |date=15 December 1949 |title=Norwich premiere |work=The Stage |page=8 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> Her novel ''[[Wives and Daughters (1999 TV series)|Wives and Daughters]]'' aired on BBC television in 1999. In 2004, a television film miniseries aired on BBC television of her 1854 novel ''[[North & South (TV serial)|North and South]]''. In 2007, her three part novella ''[[Cranford (TV series)|Cranford]]'' starring [[Judi Dench]] aired on BBC television.

The Gaskell Memorial Hall, [[Silverdale, Lancashire|Silverdale]]'s [[village hall]], is so named because while funds were being raised for the building of the hall in 1928 a donor offered £50, or £100 if it was named thus: the conversation is recorded by novelist [[Willie Riley]] in his autobiography.<ref name="riley">{{cite book |last1=Riley |first1=W. |title=Sunset Reflections |date=1957 |publisher=Herbert Jenkins |location=London |pages=154 |quote=A Harrogate gentleman, Sir Norman Rae, ... told me ... he had opened a village hall in Nidderdale. "I gave them fifty pounds," he remarked, casually. This roused me and I said "We in this village are desperately anxious to build a hall of that kind... Will you give us fifty pounds?" We had been talking of Mrs Gaskell's connection ... "Shall we call it a Memorial Hall to that lady?" ... "If you'll do that... I'll give you a hundred."}}</ref>

The rebuilt [[Cross Street Chapel]] in Manchester houses a collection of memorabilia of the writer in the Gaskell Room of the new building.

==See also==
*[[Illegitimacy in fiction]]
*[[Elizabeth Carter]]

== Notes ==

{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* [[Miriam Allott|Allott, Miriam]]. ''Elizabeth Gaskell: Writers and Their Work'' No. 124 (Longmans/British Council, 1960)
* [[Lord David Cecil|Cecil, David]]. ''Early Victorian Novelists: Essays in Revaluation'' (Constable & Co., 1934)
* Chapple, J. A. V. ''Elizabeth Gaskell: A Portrait in Letters'' (University of Manchester Press, 1980)  {{ISBN|978-0-71900-799-6}}
* Craik, W. A. ''Elizabeth Gaskell and the English Provincial Novel'' (Methuen & Co., 1975) {{ISBN|978-0-41682-630-2}}
* Easson, Angus. ''Elizabeth Gaskell: The Critical Heritage'' (Routledge, 1991) {{ISBN|978-0-41503-289-6}}
* [[Winifred Gérin|Gérin, Winifred]]. ''Elizabeth Gaskell: A Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 1977) {{ISBN|978-0-19812-070-4}}
* [[Michael Sadleir|Sadleir, Michael]]. ''Excursions in Victorian Bibliography'' (Chaundy & Cox, 1922)
* [[Geoffrey Tillotson|Tillotson, Geoffrey]]. ''A View of Victorian Literature'' (Oxford University Press, 1978) {{ISBN|978-0-19812-044-5}}
* [[Jenny Uglow|Uglow, Jenny]]. ''Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories'' (Faber & Faber, 1993) {{ISBN|978-0-57115-182-0}}

==External links==
{{Library resources box}}
{{Commons category|Elizabeth Gaskell}}
{{wikisource author}}
{{Wikiquote}}
'''Digital collections'''
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/elizabeth-gaskell}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=220 | name=Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Gaskell, (Mrs.) Elizabeth|name=Elizabeth Gaskell|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=( Gaskell AND ("Mrs Gaskell" OR "Mrs. Gaskell" OR Elizabeth OR Cleghorn) )}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4108}}

'''Physical collections'''
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120507231224/http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb133ecg Elizabeth Gaskell Manuscripts] at the [[John Rylands Library]], Manchester
*[http://www.bl.uk/people/elizabeth-gaskell Elizabeth Gaskell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170518175449/http://www.bl.uk/people/elizabeth-gaskell |date=18 May 2017 }} at the British Library
* Archival material at {{wikidata|qualifier|property|P485|Q24568958|P856|format=\[%q %p\]}}

'''Other resources'''
*[http://www.gaskellsociety.co.uk The Gaskell Society]
*[http://www.gaskell.jp/ The Gaskell Society of Japan] (Japanese)
* {{LCAuth|n80010119|Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell|189|ue}}
* {{isfdb name|19538|Mrs. Gaskell}}

*[http://www.elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/ Elizabeth Gaskell's House]
*[http://www.brookstreetchapel.org/ Brook Street Unitarian Chapel and the Gaskell Grave]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120518232448/http://victorian.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/concordance/gaskell/ A Hyper-Concordance to the Works of Elizabeth Gaskell]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070609124228/http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/Gaskell.html The Gaskell Web]
*[http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/gaskell/index.html The Victorian Web]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050306125601/http://dist.dc.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/web/kouza.php?next_KamokuTantouCD=69 The Visual Life of Elizabeth Gaskell]
*{{cite web|title=Elizabeth Gaskell|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00glwwp|website=Radio 4 Great Lives|publisher=BBC|access-date=2 July 2014|date=20 May 2005}}
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fftv4zgxrpo Elizabeth Gaskell: A Cranford Walk Around Knutsford, Past and Present] (YouTube)
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiEssMeOfUE The Grave of Elizabeth Gaskell, Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford] (YouTube)
*[https://elizabethgaskelljournal.com The Elizabeth Gaskell Journal: Digital Edition]

{{Elizabeth Gaskell}}
{{Brontë sisters}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaskell, Elizabeth}}
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